Skadi, the Goddess of Shadows, Wounds, Pain and Casualties
Skadi is a Norse goddess. She is also known as Skadhi, Skade, Scathe, and Skajoi. Her names mean “damage”, “injury” or “injury”. She is the word from which English gets the words shadows, scathe, and scythe.
Skadi was a frost giant, not a goddess, but when the Aesir killed her father, they made it up to her by giving her a husband and godlike powers. She was in love with Balder, but the Aesir did not allow her to choose any of them. She was made to choose her husband at the bare feet of the Gods. Skadi thought that the most beautiful God must also have the most beautiful foot, but she was wrong. The most beautiful feet belonged to the sea god Njord. Her marriage was not a very happy one, as Skadi could not sleep with the seagulls howling in Njord’s ocean house, and Njord could not sleep with the wolves howling in Skadi’s frozen castle in the mountains. They managed to arrange the relationship to work, and Skadi has always had a good relationship with all Aesir.
The relationship between her father and her was also close and endearing, so Skadi became the Goddess of the inheritance of the ancestors, family relationships and roots.
Human beings are social animals and we learned to speak to strengthen social ties. Winter is the time to come together and tell stories. Because of this, Skadi is also the Goddess of knowledge, storytelling, and learning of the elders.
Skadi is the goddess of bridges. She joins the world of the Gods with the Primal Forces, being an ice giant who becomes a Goddess. She unites the fresh water from the melted ice with the salty seawater of Njord. Scandinavia is home to the Baltic Sea, the largest brackish water pool in the world. (All the brackish water in the world is dedicated to a Goddess).
Skadi is the archetypal yang woman, married to a yin man, an example of preserving freedom and savagery, but still being able to live up to one’s duties and expectations. You do what YOU know is right, not what OTHERS tell you to do. Skadi is the Goddess of balanced, self-confident and independent women. She runs with the wolves.
“A healthy woman is much like a wolf: robust, full to the brim, strong life force, life-giving, territorially aware, inventive, loyal, itinerant”
-Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Skadi is the goddess of justice, revenge, and righteous anger. The fact that she went to the Aesires to demand justice for her father and accepted compensation from her grants her this right. Later all the Aesir came to her for protection, advice, sentence and judgment in different matters, even Loke did this. In this She is reminiscent of Hekate, the Greek goddess of liminal spaces, who is the final judge among the Olympian gods.
Like Hekate, Skadi is also the Goddess of Magic. She represents the darkness and coldness of winter as well as the soft and protective snow. She is like ice, hard and cold, but ice can also keep people protected and warm in the form of igloos.
Skadi is a hunter. She hunts with a bow, accompanied by white wolves. Skadi gives hunters the skills of the hunt, so if you’re a good archer, thank Skadi. She is called the White Wolf Goddess and all wolves, not just white ones, are her animals, but also other white Norse animals such as polar bears and white reindeer. She moves through the winter landscape on skis, snowshoes or skates, and she knows these winter sports better than anyone. Her sports are sacred to her. Skadi is in many ways similar to another sports jacket, Diana-Artemis. Diana’s favorite sport was running, and when the snow melts, Skadi runs too. She is believed to be in the rivers and rapids during the summer and therefore she is also the goddess of long distance and fast running. You can honor her by participating in these sports and martial arts. She is also the Goddess of the mountains, so she covers all extreme and endurance sports.
Skadi gives people the ability to communicate with nature, animals, plants and minerals.
In the legend of Skadi’s father, his eyes were said to rise to heaven, like stars, to watch over Skadi. Therefore, Skadi is also the Goddess of the stars and all activities related to the stars, such as astronomy and astrology. Here in Scandinavia (named after Skadi) the summers are so light that the stars can’t be seen well. We have to wait for the Skadi season, winter, to start to see the stars.
Skadi is not a silver-blonde white woman, but she looks like any native woman from the north. Her hair is dark, almost black, and long. She sometimes ties herself in a single knot. Her skin is brown and weather-worn, as is the skin of any female winter athlete, and her hands are the hands of a working woman. Her eyes are blue-gray and her teeth are very, very white. She always wears white clothes, trimmed with white fur, and for this reason she is called the White Lady of Winter. She carries with her a winter white staff, a great staff as tall as she is, decorated with bone and fur, stone and metal. She wears bone jewelry and animal teeth and claws. She is sometimes pictured with her white snake, Gemheil, coiled around her wrist or neck. Skadi is also the mistress of snakes, and when Loke caused Balder’s death, it was Skadi who hung the venom-dripping snake over his face, causing him to tremble and tremble as the venom hurt him.
Skadi is a shapeshifter, so you can expect to see her as anything. She is often in the form of a white animal, such as a snowy owl, white snake, or arctic fox.
Skadi lives on pears and game, especially reindeer. Its flowers are all white flowers, but especially those that bloom in the snow, such as the Christmas rose, snowdrops and catkins. All black and white stones are dedicated to her, especially the clear quartz crystals, called “mountain crystals” in Finnish and “ice stones” in German. If she wishes to make an offering to him, she offers her blood, filtered water or vodka, pears or white flowers. She doesn’t offer him salt, because the smell of her salt reminds her of her husband’s ocean house and the screaming seagulls. Traditionally, Skadi received offers at Imbolc (Candlemass).